Total bitcoin value exceeds cash in UK, Canada, Australia

The current value of the digital currency bitcoin is estimated at US$180 billion, exceeding the total cash in circulation in the UK and a number of other countries including Australia, it has been claimed.

The UK had US$103 billion of cash in circulation, Canada had US$59 billion and Australia US$55 billion, the website said.

This made bitcoin the world's sixth most valuable currency based on the amount of cash in circulation.

The site said that while bitcoin was the only digital currency in the top 10, both bitcoin cash and ethereum were in the top 20, based on their current value.

Ian Wright, the founder of SmallBusinessPrices.co.uk said: “Bitcoin’s continued and dramatic price rise has received much press attention, but this research gives us insight into the sheer scale of the industry."

The data for current digital currency prices and total market cap were taken from Coinmarketcap.com.

Other findings by the website were:

Currently 54% of the world’s population lives in countries with currencies in circulation worth less than the value of bitcoin.

If the price of bitcoin rises to $15,000 it will overtake the value of all Indian rupee banknotes and coins in circulation to become the fifth most valuable currency. Given its recent growth rate this could happen within the next month.

However, bitcoin’s price needs to increase to a staggering US$72,300 to overtake the Euro and become the second most valued currency.

To beat the US dollar, in terms of circulation value, it would need to increase in price to at least US$85,160.

At a price of US$458.82 the total market cap of ethereum stands at US$44 billion, making it the 17th most valuable currency, worth more than the value of all banknotes and coins in circulation of countries such as Turkey (US$36 billion) and Singapore (US$27 billion).

Bitcoin cash’s current price of $1,425.21 gives it a market cap of US$24 billion, making it the 20th most valuable currency, worth more than all Swedish Krona (US$9 billion) or South African rand (US$6 billion) banknotes and coins.

Ripple just missed the top 20 with a value of US$10 billion, but was ahead of krona or rand.

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A professional journalist with decades of experience, Sam for nine years used DOS and then Windows, which led him to start experimenting with GNU/Linux in 1998. Since then he has written widely about the use of both free and open source software, and the people behind the code. His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.